We're big proponents of bringing your lunch to work; it's almost always cheaper and healthier. But when we don't, we frequently visit Hale and Hearty. We usually come away with soup plus some recipe ideas...

Hale and Hearty has more than a dozen soups on the menu every day. There are staples like vegetable, often a chili, usually a few involving pasta...

They don't knock it out of the park on originality, but we've had some very good soups there (same goes for Au Bon Pain), and we've taken some inspiration from the menu. For example, we had a carrot, ginger, and artichoke soup this week (it's still on the menu, New Yorkers). We love carrot soups, but we've yet to add artichoke to one, so we might start experimenting. They're also big on lentil soups, which has inspired us to look into different varieties of lentils for home cooking.

Have you ever recreated a soup you loved at a deli? Anyone eating at Hale and Hearty today?